DRIVERS in Bournemouth were left fuming when barriers temporarily shut down at Richmond Gardens car park.

Cars were unable to leave from around 1pm on Sunday after machines swallowed tickets gridlocking the carpark throughout.

The car park was exceptionally busy as visitors took advantage of the weekend's free-parking - part of the initiative to encourage people to the town centre to do their Christmas shopping.

Rosalind Cutler was kept waiting at the barriers for over 30 minutes before she was able to leave.

She'd rummaged for a discarded ticket on the floor which the machine finally accepted after her long wait.

"We're stumped," she said. "We've been here half an hour or more. We're all really fed up. I've never known anything like this before."

 


Paul Stewart, who was also trapped, said: "In Poole they have the barriers up [when parking is free]. I've called the council but it's the typical thing where it won't let you speak to anyone until Monday morning."

 


Andrew Brown and Antonia King were trying to enter the car park to do some Christmas shopping.

They'd been kept waiting for around 10 minutes as a result of the chaos.

"A lot of these guys are getting really annoyed," he said. "It's just registering that the car park is full because people can't get out."

Cars were finally being released from the exit lanes at around 1.45pm.